Eleven and Holding
By Mary Penney Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Pages: 256 Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT Macy Hollinquest is eleven years old, and don’t count on her to change that anytime soon. Her birthday is just days away, but she has no intention of turning twelve without her dad by her side. He’d promised to be there for her big day, and yet he’s been gone for months—away after his discharge from the army, doing some kind of top secret, “important work.” So Macy’s staying eleven, no matter what—that is, until she meets Ginger, a nice older lady who is searching for her missing dog. Ginger’s...
Read MoreA Whole New Ballgame (Rip and Red)
By Phil Bildner Illustrated by Tim Probert Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pages: 256 Lexile: 540L Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT Rip and Red are best friends whose fifth-grade year is nothing like what they expected. They have a crazy new tattooed teacher named Mr. Acevedo, who doesn’t believe in tests or homework and who likes off-the-wall projects, the more “off” the better. And guess who’s also their new basketball coach? Mr. Acevedo! Easy-going Rip is knocked completely out of his comfort zone. And for Red, who has autism and really needs things to be...
Read MoreFinding Perfect
By Elly Swartz Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pages: 304 Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT To twelve-year-old Molly Nathans, perfect is: —The number four —The tip of a newly sharpened No. 2 pencil —A crisp white pad of paper —Her neatly aligned glass animal figurines What’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Poetry Slam Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with white...
Read MoreLike Water on Stone
By Dana Walrath Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Pages: 368 Age Range: 14 – 17 Years ABOUT “Evocative and hopeful,” says Newbery Honor-Winner Rita Williams-Garcia of this intense survival story set during the Armenian genocide of 1915. It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence. Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in...
Read MoreSkating with the Statue of Liberty
By Susan Meyer Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Pages: 320 Lexile: 710L Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT “This rich story reminds us that America can be at its best as a melting pot. A page-turner for all the right reasons.”—VINCE VAWTER, Newbery Honor-winning author of Paperboy In this gripping and poignant companion to Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner Black Radishes, Gustave faces racism and anti-Semitism in New York City during World War II, but ultimately finds friendship and hope. It is January 1942, and Gustave, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy, has made it to...
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